by Brianne Welch | Nov 21, 2013 | Sports
After sitting out of basketball for a season, Lipscomb redshirt sophomore Ashley Southern is back on the court and making a statement. Originally from Tuscumbia, Ala., Southern began playing recreation basketball at the age of 6 at the request of her best friend. “She begged me to play with her, so I played. Her dad was the coach,” Southern said. “I was terrible. I scored for the other team.” Southern has come a long way since those rec ball days. She played basketball and volleyball in high school and received many accolades including three-time All-State, All-County, All-Area and All-Region selections for basketball. Southern also scored 2,267 career points in high school. Southern received the Atlantic Sun Newcomer of the Week award earlier this season and is already a top scorer and rebounder for the Lady Bisons, with more than 50 points and 48 rebounds. Even so, Southern doesn’t like to talk about her individual achievements. “I’m not one of these people that really cares about personal awards,” Southern said. “Like, honestly, I just want us to win some games.” Southern is a redshirt sophomore because she transferred into Lipscomb from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga last season, and, through NCAA rules, was required to sit out for the 2012-13 season. “When I got to Chattanooga it was just a whole different atmosphere than what I thought it was going to be, and I wasn’t happy,” Southern said. “Lipscomb recruited me out of high school, so I got in touch with Coach Bennett and decided to transfer here.” Former Lady Bison head coach Frank Bennett originally recruited Southern to...
by Cory Woodroof | Sep 13, 2013 | News Slider, Sports
Nashville has lost an icon, and Lipscomb has lost its biggest fan. Chuck Ross has died at the age of 68. Ross passed away on Friday morning due to complications of diabetes and fluid on his lungs. He was receiving hospice treatment at the Lakeshore Heartland Nursing Home. For six decades, Ross was one of the campus’ most recognizable faces. He attended nearly every sporting event that Lipscomb had to offer, cheering on his beloved Bisons and Mustangs with the now-hallowed chant, “Beat’em, and beat’em bad!” Ross’ death comes in a year that saw the passing of another Lipscomb legend; former high school football coach Glenn McCadams passed away in March. Nashvillians will remember Ross for various reasons. Some may mention having received one of Ross’ infamous phone calls, possibly asking for a game’s score or the next day’s weather. Some may recall humorous encounters with the Bisons fan, with many stories likely ending with a rubbing of Ross’ noted Bison belt buckle. Former Lipscomb Academy head basketball coach and current Nashville Christian head coach Mike McPherson added to the memories of humorous phone messages, recounting a rather lengthy message Ross had left him. “He called and left me a voicemail one time, and at the end of the message, he started going through every sports team on campus,” McPherson said. “He said, ‘Go Mustangs, go Lady Mustangs, go Mustang soccer.” He then went on and started naming every team on the college campus. The voicemail last about 10 minutes of Chuck saying go every team on campus.” McPherson remembers Ross as a great motivator of teams, having brought...
by Hunter Patterson | Apr 12, 2012 | News Slider, Sports
Lipscomb women’s basketball head coach Frank Bennett has been named associate athletic director. In accepting this position, Bennett will transition out of his role as women’s basketball head coach, and a national search will begin immediately for his replacement. Athletic Director Phillip Hutcheson made the announcement on Thursday. Bennett recently completed his 32nd year as the head coach of the women’s basketball team and is the 25th winningest women’s basketball coach in NCAA history with a record of 583-438. “Coach Bennett has dedicated the majority of his life to our program and has influenced hundreds of student athletes through his leadership, integrity and walk with God,” Hutcheson said. “I personally appreciate everything he has done for Lipscomb, and I look forward to working with him in this new role.” Bennett’s program was a NAIA national power and, in a history-making feat, appeared in the NCAA Tournament in the program’s first year of eligibility. Bennett was enshrined in the Lipscomb Athletics Hall of Fame and the NAIA Hall of Fame in 2003. “Our mission has been to try to create an environment where our players and coaches could grow as a total person — spiritually, socially, academically and in basketball,” Bennett said. “I have been privileged to be part of a program that has a positive impact on our players’ lives. I appreciate our assistant coaches for their hard work, friendship and concern and care for our student athletes. I also appreciate the university offering me the opportunity to continue to make an impact in this new role as associate athletic director. I look forward to the new challenges of...
by Hunter Patterson | Oct 23, 2011 | Sports
Ever since Lipscomb and Belmont played their first basketball game in 1953, they’ve been rivals. With the two schools being on the same street just a couple miles away, it was practically inevitable. However, looking back over the history of Lipscomb athletics, you’ll find more than just Lipscomb-Belmont. They were instead, other schools in town. “In the 1950s, East Tennessee State was a huge rival for David Lipscomb College,” said Andy Lane, associate athletic director. In those games, the team would actually get on a train and head to east Tennessee to play. Now, both teams are in the Atlantic Sun, so the fire is still there, but Lane says it was a lot different then. What most students don’t know is that the Trevecca Nazarene game was that game to be at. Known as the “Bleacher Creatures” during the ’80s, Lipscomb fans would pack both McQuiddy and Trevecca’s Trojan Field House so much that actions had to be taken to prevent from breaking any laws. “In McQuiddy, the fans were right on top of you,” Lady Bisons head coach Frank Bennett says. “Those games were as intense as any we have ever had,” Lane says. Communications professor Jimmy McCollum recalls one game where the fire marshal forced Lipscomb to shut the doors on the gym because it had reached maximum capacity. “We had what I believe was a perfect storm for rivalries,” McCollum said. “We had a small gym, we had an excellent team consistently ranked in the top 5 or 10 across the nation in the NAIA and we had not only one but two local rivals...
by Hunter Patterson | Aug 25, 2011 | News Slider, Sports
Hard nosed, honest, tough and a leader. All the words have been used to describe Coach Pat Summitt for over 30 years. Now, just days after she announced that she had been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, those words have never rang truer. Coach Summitt has been the head coach of the Lady Vols at the University of Tennessee since she was 22. Yes, some of her players were older than her. She drove the van to away games. She and her players slept in locker rooms because money was tight. Some ladies even made the team based on the fact that they owned a vehicle. For Coach Summitt, those were the tough times. Now, Lady Vol fans and admirers of the Basketball Hall of Fame coach are calling this a hard time. Summitt refuses to, though. “There will be no pity party,” Summitt told the Washington Post in an interview on Sunday. “I’ll be sure of that.” Summitt says she had felt that something was off for a while, saying she “just felt something different.” Once her Lady Vols were eliminated from the Regional final of the NCAA tournament she visited the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. seeking any sort of explanation to why she had these lapses of memory. Those lapses were everything from forgetting what time she needed to be at the gym, losing her car keys more than once per day and forgetting what type of scheme or play to run at a certain time during a game. “I think last year there was some adjustment in games,” Lipscomb’s women’s basketball coach Frank Bennett said....
